First 42 Le Mans entries confirmed

First 42 Le Mans entries confirmed

Organizers of the Le Mans 24 Hours the Automobile Club de L’Ouest (ACO) sprung a surprise today by confirming just 42 of the 60 entries for the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours. The ACO had announced last November that 50 entries would be confirmed today as part of a new two-stage process.

Included in the 42 cars (out of the 75 teams that applied) so far announced are 34 of the 36 full-season FIA WEC entries announced ahead of the 2018/19 ‘Super Season’ and eight teams that have taken up auto entries. The remaining 18 slots and the 10-car reserve list are now planned to be revealed on March 1.

There were plenty of surprises from the announcement, not least the reduced number of cars named.

None of the full season IMSA GTLM cars are yet confirmed with Corvette Racing, Porsche, Ford, BMW and Risi Competizione still waiting for news on their proposed entries.

In the FIA WEC ranks, neither of the TRSM Ginetta LMP1 cars made the cut, despite the fact that RACER understands that the Ginetta factory — having recently regained control of the entries from its former customers — had posted a pair of entries for its now AER-powered G60-LT-P1s.

More Le Mans/WEC!

Additionally, of the 11 auto entries awarded thus far, Signatech Alpine (which won the LMP2 class at Le Mans this year) has decided against entering a second LMP2 car alongside its WEC full-season entry. Perhaps less of a surprise is that neither Toyota Gazoo Racing nor Porsche, which were also awarded auto entries for their racing success at Le Mans last year, have opted to field an additional car.

It was also announced that American sports car racing legend Hurley Haywood will be the Grand Marshall for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.

Stephen Kilbey

UK-based Stephen Kilbey is RACER.com's FIA World Endurance Championship correspondent, and is also Deputy Editor of Dailysportscar.com
He has a first-class honours degree in Sports Journalism and is a previous winner of the UK Guild of Motoring Writers Sir William Lyons Award.